Book Alert: Matched

Matched by Ally Condie is being hailed as “the new Hunger Games“. This new series is also a trilogy, featuring a love triangle set in a futuristic America that is all too believable. There are no spoilers in the below post, so read with abandon.

The premis of Matched is that Society (basically the governing force, overseen by various Officials) choses all aspects of your life. They’ve eliminated all diseases, discovered the secrets to an optimal life experience and the perfect age for you to die at. Each of your meals is specifically prepared for you with the exact amount on nutrients you need and delivered to you. You know when you will die. You’re told who you will love.

On her 17th birthday Cassia, our hero, attends her Match Banquet where she will find out who Society has determined is her perfect match bases on genes, personality and a variety of other factors. But a mixup (revealed early on) causes Cassia to question who she’s really meant to be with. The guy Society tells her she’s meant to be with or the one she wasn’t meant to see?

It’s quite a slow moving book and I’m not entirely convinced of the one arm of the long triangle – the guy she isn’t ‘meant’ to be with. But I like the world Ally has constructed. It’s a plausible world, one which we’d all like most likely want. But it comes at a great cost – limited history, limited choice and really, in the end, limite life. As for it being the new Hunger Games, I’m not so sure. It lacks the pace and dramatic tension of the first book. Our hero is also from the better part of Society whereas Katniss was from the ‘lower’ class for want of a better description. While The Hunger Games lost momentum with each subsequent book, perhaps this trilogy will gain it.

I enjoyed it, but I’m not convinced it’s all that.

The next book in the series, Crossed, is already out. The third book is due for release later this year / next year.

Rating: 7/10Genre: Young AdultIf you liked…The Hunger Games, His Dark Materials Trilogythen you’ll like this book.